If Mad Max were a brilliant architect, here's what he'd build

By Liz Stinson, Wired

Updated 1335 GMT (2035 HKT) July 30, 2014

If Mad Max were a brilliant architect, here's what he'd build7 photos

Mad Max architecture – Justin Plunkett's Con/Struct series blends the real with the fabricated. The South African designer and creative director has layered several images together and combined them with computer generated illustration to create a Mad Max style post-apocalyptic world.

Hide Caption

1 of 7

If Mad Max were a brilliant architect, here's what he'd build7 photos

Mad Max architecture – Plunkett has taken thousands of photos of some of the most down-and-out neighborhoods of the city.

Hide Caption

2 of 7

If Mad Max were a brilliant architect, here's what he'd build7 photos

Mad Max architecture – He takes an aspect of a photo, the sky, a window, and then adds a 3-D rendering he created with software.

Hide Caption

3 of 7

If Mad Max were a brilliant architect, here's what he'd build7 photos

Mad Max architecture – This leads to images that toe the uncomfortable line between real and fake.

Hide Caption

4 of 7

If Mad Max were a brilliant architect, here's what he'd build7 photos

Mad Max architecture – The series is part study in South African architecture, part deep commentary on life in the country.

Hide Caption

5 of 7

If Mad Max were a brilliant architect, here's what he'd build7 photos

Mad Max architecture – A Dutch-style home, shown here, is often considered a mark of wealth, but it is set amongst gravel and a tattered, old sofa.

Hide Caption

6 of 7

If Mad Max were a brilliant architect, here's what he'd build7 photos

Mad Max architecture – "I'd like people to look at it and ask themselves some kind of question," says Plunkett. "Is it real or is it not? What does it mean if it's real or if it isn't? That's where it becomes really interesting."

Hide Caption

7 of 7

Story highlights

Justin Plunkett, a Cape Town designer, has created a Mad Max fantasy world

He layered multiple photographs, combining them with computer-generated illustration

The series is part study in South African architecture, part commentary on life in the country

In his recent Con/struct series, Plunkett, a Cape Town designer and creative director, has created a Mad Max fantasy world, filled with tottering skyscrapers made of refuse from a bygone era. Each of his images is the result of multiple photographs layered together with computer-generated illustrations.

Plunkett had been amassing a collection of photographs taken in some of the most down-and-out neighborhoods of Cape Town. "I had been photographing places and environments for a while with no particular agenda or plan for them," he says. He'll take a tire from one, a metal container from another, the sky from a different photograph and then construct an illustrated architectural structure in the middle of it.

Pointed Commentary

The series is part study in South African architecture, part deep commentary on life in the country. In one image you see a Dutch-style home (illustrated), often considered to be a mark of wealth, set amongst gravel and a tattered, old sofa.

In another you see an illustrated monument-like structure constructed from corrugated iron in the middle of a rubble-strewn field. Plunkett has turned this corrugated iron, which is often used to build shacks, into a thing of grand beauty. Context is key to really appreciating Plunkett's work.

At its most basic, the series addresses the idea of empowerment, and what it means in to gain it and lose it in South Africa. As a creative director who often finds himself working with corporations that shill an empty, unattainable idea of success, Con/struct was a way to spark a conversation. "There's an enormous gap between the realities in impoverished areas and what success actually equates to," he says.

The ambiguous relationship to reality is what makes Plunkett's work so fascinating. You know deep down that what you're looking at isn't actually there, but the images do make you wonder: What if it were?

"It's a mash of references that are real, but they become quite fictional in the end," he says. "I'd like people to look at it and ask themselves some kind of question. Is it real or is it not? What does it mean if it's real or if it isn't? That's where it becomes really interesting."